Community Policing Definition

In society today, there is a major problem We live in a society where gangs are taking over our neighborhoods in numbers. It is the responsibility of the individuals to part take in getting their neighborhoods back under control. Gangs are becoming a growing problem in American society. More young people are turning to gangs to solve problems in their lives or for acceptance. When youths join gangs, they drop all their social activities with school, family, and friends. However, individuals ruin their lives, and the chances of them having a decent education, and a successful life by getting involved in gang activity.

Gang involvement and its associated violent crime have become a rapidly growing problem for the United States. Generally, gangs consist of young people of the same ethnic, racial, and economic background. Usually of a low socio-economic status, these gangs engage in illegal money making activities and intimidate their neighborhoods and rival gangs with violent crimes and victimization. Gang members exemplify a high value for group loyalty and sacrifice.

The American headlines of any large city will site killings on street corners, robberies, assaults, intimidation, and drug interaction. While not all-criminal activity is associated with gangs, the 780,000 strong members do account for a large majority of the problems that are plaguing America. There is no one-way to stop gang activity in one single swipe, but through a combination of cooperation, education, and training techniques law enforcement can minimize the gang’s movements and even stop a crime before it is committed.

“The model rests on three principles: (1) adaptability to a variety of gang-related problems and a variety of jurisdictions; (2) flexibility; and (3) the use of a multifaceted approach by government, private agencies, and community participation. Central features of the model are its focus on harmful behaviors, continuous diagnosis of problems, coordination of responses, performance monitoring, impact evaluation, and adaptation to change.” (Office of Justice Programs, n.d.). This focuses on the youth gangs and bringing the gang to their attention. Getting to know the gang, their tactics, and approaches would help with understanding their ways of violence, how they use it, where, and why. Many of the violence in gangs are for honor, revenge, courage, and prestige. This model uses a four-stage problem solving technique that focuses on why problems are persisting within the

Police and other elements of the criminal justice system are at the center of efforts to reduce gang violence. Police are fully aware of the damage that gangs do to their communities, in terms of graffiti, vandalism, fighting, shoot-outs, robbery, rape and other violence. They understand that neighborhoods cannot function effectively under the reign of terror that many street gangs impose. At the same time, police leaders around the nation have frequently made the point that “we cannot arrest our way out of the crime problem.” Too many lawbreakers, limited police resources and high levels of long-term losses to communities make it vital that arrest not be the only answer. Community involvement, focused social services and community problem solving are other critical strategies that can reduce crime in the long term and strengthen neighborhoods.

One of the most effective policing strategies used in law enforcement is community policing. Two experts in this strategy are Robert Trojanowicz and Bonnie Bucqueroux. They have done research and wrote many articles on the topic. Trojanowicz worked for Michigan State University and has recently passed away. Bucqueroux was a victim of domestic violence and has added ideas in this area for community policing.

A problem facing the common citizen regarding this problem is their perception of gangs, how they view gangs and how they think gangs operate. To the average person when they think of a gang, they think of some teenagers smoking on a street corner brandishing knives. And while that’s partially true, it’s very far from the whole truth. When it comes to organized crime, there is no one type of gang, there different types of gangs varying in their size, influence, and how dangerous they are. At the bottom of the food chain is the street gangs consisting of a few dozen members at most and, like the name implies, they

Community oriented policing is a working partnership between the police and the community, in which the community must play an active role against crime and disorder. Community oriented policing is a long term process that holds the views of the community members at a higher status than traditional models. With police officers being more proactive this causes a fundamental institutional change in the whole department. Problem oriented policing uses proactive police techniques while using the COP philosophy by examining the causes for recurring incidents. Problem oriented policing often causes officers and departments to think outside the box with its four stage problem solving process. Community oriented policing and problem oriented policing

As an administrator given the task to implement a new agency, the choice would be a law enforcement agency in a small to medium size community. There would be several client oriented service concept that I would consider and include in the organization and its mission and objectives. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s police were not trusted by the community and its citizens (Cronkhite, 2013). As the public’s trust and faith in the police declined, so did the funding provided by the public. This was evidenced by the failure of several ballot initiatives for police funding that failure (Cronkhite, 2013).

Community policing is defined as a " philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime" according to the U.S. Department of Justice. (U. S. Department of Justice). In other words the main goal of community policing is the allocation of various police agencies/staff to particular areas around the community so they become familiar with its inhabitants and lifestyle. This style of policing attempts to modify the department through a system called de-bureaucratization and has four major goals to meet.

There are many strategies that the police have come up with to communicate with the citizens in their community one of these strategies is community policing meaning, “A collaborative effort between the police and the community that identifies problems of the crime and disorders and involves all elements of the community in the search for solutions to these problems.” (Schmalleger) Community policing changes the way the police do their job because it brings in the trust of the people towards the them, they feel good knowing they are not alone; they know who to count on. The police want the community to feel safe and this is a way to bring in positive views towards them. Not only does this help reduce crime, but also the people give feedback

If there is a great amount of gang activity- ongoing organization or group of three or more people and can be formal or informal engaging in activities of criminal acts which have a common name, sign, color and or symbol associated with them. They type of activity would be things such as perhaps wearing certain clothing, jewelry, badges, symbols to communication verbal and could be nonverbal threats, being that of handshakes or gestures of any kind, defacing private and or personal property, Stealing, trespassing and could be as serious as threats, attacks, and not limited to soliciting other individuals for gang membership. Then, we have Directed patrols which can involve and not limited to prostitution stings, and undercover operations. Also, there needs to be heavy law-enforcement presence that would be profoundly needed. Lastly, we need many traffic check-points in and surrounding these communities. Many things that would need to be enforced is that of loitering and trespassing for example. Strategic –Oriented Policing can come with different approaches because many different groups come with different problems but similar solutions. The National Institute of Justice states that “These various approaches may be aimed at goals that include crime prevention, effective use of police

Community policing is the relationship and co-operation between law enforcement and the people of the community. The idea behind it is that law enforcement’s performance can be improved in the areas of crime control and order maintenance with the help of the public; through reaching out to the community and information sharing, law enforcement can establish a mutual understanding. This outlook on crime control and prevention encourages community members to participate in problem solving. “Communities must take a unified stand against crime, violence, and disregard for the law, and must make a commitment to increasing crime-prevention and intervention activities. Police agencies must help build stronger, more self-sufficient

    Gang violence is a huge problem in America today. More and more children are joining gangs every day. It has become evident that these gangs made up of young people are causing numerous problems. Gang violence and gang activities impact all of those around the gang members. The kids in these gangs are hurting themselves, each other, their families, and the communities around them. Those who are associated with the gangs through family ties or just those who are associated with the gangs through geographical location. Before we can understand how gangs effect the people and communities around them we must first understand what gangs actually are. We must try and understand how the gang members think,

Gangs are defined as an association of people, with at least 3 members, that “identify themselves by adopting a group identity which they use to create an atmosphere of fear or intimidation”. A gang’s purpose is to “engage in criminal activity and uses violence or intimidation to further its criminal objective” (Jaffe, 2015). These groups of people are more prevalent today than they ever have been in the past. Today, “there are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and OMG gang members comprising more than 33,000 gangs in the United States and Puerto Rico” (“2011 National Gang Threat Assessment”, 2011). In addition, throughout the US, gangs are present in every type of area, including large cities, suburbs, and rural counties and all regions of the country. Larger cities have the longest history with gang violence, dating back to before 1990, however smaller cities and rural areas did not begin to experience problems until the 1990s. The membership rates have only increased, due to the fact that gangs tend to appeal widely to the youth (“National Youth Gang Survey Analysis”, 2012).